SFF Follow Up

Thursday, December 23, 2010

First of all, a follow up is necessary I believe to my post from Tuesday. When I blog, it's straight from the hip, just like the expression shooting from the hip, as in I do not take days to develop posts or even to edit them. I merely decide on a subject worthwhile to me that I would like to post and then I write, publish and then go back to edit it for grammatical errors. I get in and get out so to speak.

Clearly I knew that by posting a unique opinion in the midst of the holiday in question, that is deeply rooted in nostalgia, that I may strike out. I honestly don't believe that I did, but I apologize if anyone felt that my opinion was attacking or somewhere read in my post that I wrote "You are not a Christian if you don't do the same exact thing as we chose for our family." I do not apologize for our choice or my opinion, simply the delivery.

The thing is, I merely want to encourage others to dwell on their decisions and truly think through the weight of their words and actions. The choice to go Santa free was virtually painless for Tony and me, as we know no other way. There are plenty of Christians who have the same nondecision due to growing up with a strong faith, knowledge of the true meaning of Christmas and believed in Santa. I do not begrude anyone that fact.

I feel as though even though the vast majority of comments were encouraging of the debate, even if choosing differently for their family, that I owe you all the apology for not taking the time to craft my post more delicately.

I am not drawing a line in the sand between those who celebrate Christmas correctly and those who do not. I was expressing our decision, one that I had only heard voiced by one in my corner of the blog world. And I'm glad I did, if for no other reason than I strengthened some reader's opinions on how they will present Christmas to their family, by forcing them to think why.

The fact of the matter is there is no referrence of Christmas in the Bible. I do not have a Biblical blueprint on how to best honor God through celebrating the birth of His son. What I do have is how He has commanded me to live otherwise in the Bible and I'm doing my best to follow.

You can do no wrong when you write and speak from the heart. It doesn't matter if we believe in the same things or follow our lives paths in the same manner just be true to who you are. Love ya girl. On a side note, your post threw me for a loop as I have never seen this way of thinking before but I found it to be intriguing and thought provoking. I went home that evening and discussed this with my husband. And I thank you for introducing me to yet another view on life. Happy holidays to you and yours. And I hope 2011 is all that you wished for.

I agree with d.a.r--we're one of those families that probably will have Santa in the mix, but I didn't find your last post offensive or "holier than thou" at all...just an interesting point of view that I had never really considered before.

While I see differently from you and choose to celebrate differently, I still respect your choice. You shouldn't apologize for your choice to be Santa free even If people don't agree with it. I apologize if my questions seemed harsh in your other post. I was intrigued and didn't quite understand it all. After reading everything I understand a little better. Merry CHRISTmas.

Don't apologize, if people got their panties in a bunch because you have chosen to parent a certain way, with a certain belief, they need to get over it. We are also santa free, we plan to tell Jack he is kind of like superman, fun to pretend but not real. We do plan on teaching him about St. Nicholas, and that we give to others because we are happy, that we have been given a tremendous gift in the form of Jesus. (Check out the st. nick veggietales..I know that sounds dumb but it is SO cute)

Sorry people came down on you, but the majority of your readers will understand, if not agree.

So two thoughts on this. First, you already threw a disclaimer into your original post, so if people got all spicy about your last post they need to remove themselves a little bit and remember that it's just your opinion - not that you're trying to influence theirs. It's scary to me that people get so outraged when an opinion is different than their own - differences make this world tick, I just wish more people could accept those differences with grace.

Second, you are a very classy lady, Leah. I don't think you needed to write this post (your blog, you get to write about what you want) but it was eloquent.